Due to the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa, Nal'ibali has cancelled all planned events, reading clubs, school visits and training sessions until schools and educares reopen.

We urge you to take the same precautions and temporarily stop your reading club activities until they are safe to resume!

Why is Nal'ibali taking these measures?

Our government has closed all South African schools and preschools until 14 April, and asked all South Africans to practice social distancing, which means limiting public gatherings and non-essential interaction as much as possible. This will help us to stay safe ourselves, protect the well-being of others, and slow the spread of the coronavirus to limit the burden on our healthcare system.

Nal'ibali can help
With schools and preschools closed and families spending more time at home, many caregivers will be wondering what they can do to keep their children entertained and learning. Although these are challenging times, they also present an opportunity: to form new habits and grow the culture of reading and writing in your home! (If you’re a caregiver, you can even start a home reading club with your children!)

To support you during this time, Nal’ibali will be offering a holiday programme support package including:

• A multilingual virtual reading club will be broadcast on Facebook Live three times a week from 27 March for the duration of the school holidays.
•  All FUNda Leaders with up-to-date contact information will receive stories three times a week via email and SMS.
• A free downloadable guide to helping children read and write at home will be emailed to you and is also available on our website.
• A free downloadable guide to running a reading-for-enjoyment holiday programme is available on our website. (This was designed for groups of children – but many of the same activities can be done with just a few children in your own home!)

As always, you can also enjoy hundreds of freely downloadable multilingual audio and written stories in all 11 South African languages. And you can use our story seeds to find bedtime story inspiration. If you don’t currently receive stories and would like to, please sign up to our network. And – please forward this email to others who are looking for activities during the holidays!

If your organisation is interested in becoming a content partner by broadcasting or publishing our stories, please contact us at info@nalibali.org.

Stay safe and get reading!

The Nal'ibali Team